Gene Editing Presents a Great New Threat to the World

Also, Cam Hardy to Discuss Public Transportation in Hamilton County

To Watch a Complete Recording of This Class–Click Here

Cam Hardy is the outspoken President of the Better Bus Coalition in Cincinnati which is committed to ensuring Metro has adequate funding to address capital deficits and to increase frequency throughout the system.   Cam’s group has put forward a petition to be voted on by the City of Cincinnati residents in Fall 2019 that would increase the earnings tax devoted to Metro funding from .3% to .5%.   He has developed the Better Bus Plan, where 80% of Hamilton County residents and 86% of Hamilton County jobs will be within a 5 minute walk of a bus.

Cam will be joining EmpowerU during the first part of tonight’s class to fill us in on his Better Bus Plan and how his group can improve Metro, in first the City and then Hamilton County  Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about what is going on now in the first half of the EmpowerU session.  After Cam finishes about 7:30, we will learn about Gene Editing.

Gene Editing with CRISPR technologies will shape the future of the human race, and it is important that we stay informed on where it may lead us.  Imagine a world where you design your baby before it is born and you can create an army of cloned super-soldiers.  This is no longer science fiction or an x-men movie.  This is the world currently being developed by the technology known as CRISPER 0r Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.

In this class, the origins, applications, and ethics of CRISPR gene editing will be discussed.  From bacteria to designer babies, the scary and exciting possibilities of CRISPR will be explained in a simple format.

Henry Heimlich is a 9th grader at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy who has always had great interest in the topic of gene editing and manipulation.  In August of 2018, Henry had an op-ed published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on the subject of CRISPR gene editing.  He first learned about CRISPR while doing a school project on the topic of cloning.  His interest was further peaked when he saw the movie Rampage, and noticed inaccuracies surrounding CRISPR in the movie.  That led Henry to further research and to submitting the op-ed.   Along with being on his school’s Robotics team, he also trains in mixed martial arts and recently earned his red belt. Henry also enjoys performing standup comedy, and will be performing this April for the third time at his school’s annual ArtBeat event.